I Will Always Love You: Remembering Dolly Parton, the Queen of Country Whose Extraordinary Legacy Reached Far Beyond Music

Dolly Parton — singer, songwriter, actress, producer, businesswoman, philanthropist and one of the most universally beloved figures in entertainment — has died aged 80.

For millions around the world, it is difficult to imagine popular culture without Dolly Parton in it.

With the unmistakable voice, the rhinestones, the towering blonde hair and a personality seemingly every bit as big as her extraordinary catalogue of music, Dolly became an icon. But behind an image she was always happy to joke about, she was a formidable songwriter, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist whose influence reached into corners of entertainment that even many of her fans may never have realised.

Parton's family announced her death on Tuesday, 25 August. Her nephew Bryan Seaver delivered the news on behalf of the Parton and Owens families.

She leaves behind a career spanning almost seven decades and more than 100 million records sold, with songs including Jolene, Coat of Many Colors, 9 to 5 and, of course, I Will Always Love You becoming part of the fabric of popular music. She won 11 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

But simply describing Dolly Parton as a country music legend somehow feels inadequate.

From 9 to 5 to Hollywood

Dolly proved equally difficult to contain on the screen.

Her starring role alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in 9 to 5 turned her into a movie star while its title track became another of her defining songs. Roles in films including The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk followed, helping make that unmistakable Tennessee voice and larger-than-life personality familiar far beyond country-music audiences.

Then there is one of the most wonderfully unexpected parts of the Dolly Parton story.

Yes, Dolly Parton Helped Give Us Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Long before Buffy Summers began patrolling the cemeteries of Sunnydale, Dolly Parton had quietly become part of the story.

Parton co-founded Sandollar Productions with Sandy Gallin. The company produced the original 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie and subsequently helped develop and produce the television phenomenon starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Parton's involvement largely remained behind the scenes and she wasn't individually credited on the series, meaning generations of Buffy fans could watch the show without ever knowing that the Queen of Country was one of the people helping to make it possible.

Parton later explained that she had actually been very involved with the production from Nashville, while Gellar has spoken about the gifts Dolly would send to the cast and the support she offered the series. Following Parton's death, Gellar has again paid tribute to the importance of that support.

It's an almost perfect example of just how far Dolly Parton's influence reached.

You didn't have to listen to country music to have Dolly somewhere in your cultural landscape.

The Businesswoman Behind the Rhinestones

Dolly also understood something exceptionally well: being an entertainer and being a businesswoman were not mutually exclusive.

Her ventures grew to encompass an entertainment empire, most famously Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park that became both a major tourist attraction and an important employer in the region where she grew up.

And despite cultivating one of entertainment's most recognisable public images, Dolly was frequently the first person to make the joke about herself.

The glamour was real.

So was the business brain underneath it.

The Legacy That Came in the Post

Yet some of Dolly Parton's most important work never required a stage.

In 1995, inspired by her father Robert Lee Parton's inability to read and write, she created Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee.

The idea was wonderfully simple: give children books.

Free ones.

Every month.

From birth until the age of five.

What began as a local programme became international, eventually expanding across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Today it sends millions of books every month to children around the world.

There was also her support for medical research — including a $1 million donation that helped fund research connected with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — alongside disaster relief and numerous causes throughout her lifetime.

That perhaps explains why Dolly Parton became something rarer than simply famous.

She became loved.

A Coat of Many Colours

There will inevitably be discussions over the coming days about which song, performance or achievement best defines Dolly Parton.

Perhaps there isn't one.

There is the young songwriter who left the mountains of East Tennessee for Nashville.

There is the woman who wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You.

The movie star.

The woman behind Dollywood.

The producer whose company helped bring Buffy the Vampire Slayer into our homes.

The philanthropist who put books into the hands of millions of children.

And the entertainer who understood perfectly well that you could wear enormous hair, cover yourself in rhinestones, laugh at yourself and still be the smartest person in the room.

Dolly Parton's life really was a coat of many colours.

Today the world has lost the Queen of Country.

But through the songs people will continue singing, the films and television they'll continue watching, the businesses and communities she helped build and the books that will continue landing on children's doorsteps, Dolly Parton isn't going anywhere.

And perhaps there could be no more fitting final thought than the title of the song she wrote more than half a century ago:

We will always love you, Dolly.